This report brings together the voices of different groups working to build China’s resilience to earthquakes - with a focus on rural communities in Shaanxi Province.

It is the outcome of a three-day writeshop in Xi'an, as part of the Earthquakes without Frontiers (EwF) partnership. Work in China has revealed a wealth of existing knowledge and much practical experience on increasing earthquake resilience at the community level. But knowledge was held by different stakeholders and little was easily available to others. Furthermore, local stakeholders had limited access to the wealth of international experience on earthquake disaster risk reduction.

This report presents existing knowledge on the seismic hazard in Shaanxi Province, social science research, and local and international experiences, drawing lessons and conclusions for future work.